"Those are some dangerous looking nails!" manager Hollie Golden says as Tarah begins to sign up for a ticket.

"I just got them done for SnoBall," the McNary High School junior replies.

"Fabulous!" Tarah's sister Raina Rush sings from beside her.

Tarah didn't plan on going to Saturday night's annual SnoBall, but changed her mind in the last week. She purchased a yellow and gold sparkly dress online four days ago and decided to head out with her best friend, Ziah.

"Everything works out at the last minute," Tarah said. "You don't know how much it's going to mean to you until the last minute."

That seems to be a somewhat common sentiment among high schoolers from across the valley, as dozens flood the few businesses that sell SnoBall tickets in the final hours before the event, often also asking for flowers or even dresses or tuxedos.

The Pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds played host and the entryway was decorated with strings of lights and faux Parisian street scenes, while the professional photo backdrop included an image of the Eiffel Tower. As many as 1,400 students from high schools around the Salem area attended the 64th edition of this unique tradition.

Mr. Formal has sold tickets to the dance since the beginning, and this year they had 154 sales of double or single tickets, many of them this week. Buying tickets at the door costs $20 more.

"I'm so sick of the words 'SnoBall' and 'single or double," Golden joked from behind her counter.

Just a quarter mile away, Lollypops & Roses is also in the midst of its SnoBall rush.

Between receiving phone calls asking if tickets are still available, florists Jodi Thomas and Susan Brown build boutonnieres and corsages with freshly cut flowers and one of 54 ribbon varieties.

Without interruption, they say it takes between 10 and 15 minutes to make a pair of the flower accessories. But an interruption-free day is too much to ask for, at least on Dec. 2.

Kids were lined up outside the shop before it opened at 9 a.m. and the business fielded more than 30 calls and four pick-ups by early afternoon, with the pace rising as the hours slipped away. Last year they had 80 ticket sales, and they expected a similar number this year.

As Thomas finished eating a lunch of microwavable mac and cheese at her work station, K12 online sophomore Maylie Alexander and McNary High School sophomore Todd Daily walk in, hand-in-hand, looking for tickets.

They've been together one month as of Saturday.

A pair costs $50, and Todd pulls a wad of cash from his pocket. Placing the bills on the counter, he counts out only $48.

After a moment or two of uncertainty from all parties, Maylie scurries out to the car to grab two more.

Adhering to the dance's Sadie Hawkins-style, Maylie asked Todd a couple weeks ago, incorporating it into his birthday present by decorating his bedroom and crafting a strand of lights with pictures of the pair together.

As far as getting tickets, it was just a matter of inconvenience.

"There are no places in Keizer that are selling them," Todd said. "It's a 20 minute drive here, so I just put it off."

Above Lollypops & Roses is a small space the size of a one-bedroom apartment, and on Monday, Nov. 27, it was filled with about 15 high school students — members of the committee that puts SnoBall together.

The students were lying in groups around a handful of sheets, using markers to cover them in French phrases, including "t'aime," "merci," "ooh la la" and "carpe diem."

At the center of it all were Susan Adkins, owner of Class Act Event and SnoBall organizer, and her right-hand student, Raul Marquez.

The McKay High School senior is extremely involved, and as a result this was only the second time he was able to attend the dance itself, despite volunteering for the committee the past four years.

After his first year, Marquez said some students weren't excited to go to the dance because they didn't connect with the music, with some schools preferring music that wasn't played as often.

This year, during ticket-selling events at each high school, volunteers also had a sheet of paper for music recommendations. Marquez said it's all in attempt to make students excited for SnoBall, since the $50 ticket isn't cheap.

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White roses are cut before being added to a corsage a few hours before SnoBall at Lollypops and Roses flower shop in Salem on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017.(Photo: ANNA REED / Statesman Journal)

"It brings students from all over the city right here," Marquez said. "They are what makes the dance so vibrant and energetic."

Adkins assumed stewardship of the event four years ago after financial troubles forced the YWCA to pull out. She had worked with them for two years before the split, so most involved organizations stayed the same.

As the group of students from Willamette Academy designed the French-phrased banners, and later in the week set up the venue, Adkins would bounce between asking students to do a task and complimenting them on a job well-done.

Planning for SnoBall 2018 begins in January, when the committee will decide on a theme so next year's crew can hit the ground running.

"Raul, if you decide to go to Willamette, we'll just bring you back next year," Adkins said.

"Yeah, that would be fun," he replied.

Contact the reporter at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich.